Winding machines of the type under discussion are employed to wind-up or unwind all sorts of rope- or string-shaped products. String- or rope-shaped products are to be understood, above all things, as products or goods such as wire, wire bundles, braids, whereby all of these products can be covered or not covered, glass fibres and the like.
After manufacture, and normally also through the further working and finishing-off process steps, the string-or-rope-shaped products are wound-on and wound-off the bobbins, which bobbins are mostly made of metal. Due to the constant increase in the speed of production of thread or wire products and the constant increase in the finishing-off facilities, the filling times and emptying times of these bobbins is always becoming shorter, as is also the case with larger bobbins. Therefore, it is necessary for the rational operation of such a facility that the filled and empty bobbins are exchanged relatively quickly for an empty bobbin and a filled bobbin, respectively.
A movable automatic bobbin-changing device has become known in German Patent P 3137990 C2, which device can be used, among other possibilities for changing bobbins of winders having a vertical winding axis. This known bobbin-changing device has a supporting arm movably supported in the center of the device and on whose respective opposing ends a bobbin can be coupled thereto. The supporting arm is further provided with devices in order to rotate the bobbins connected on its ends. In order to carry out a bobbin change with a winder which, for example, winds up thread, the bobbin-changing device travels to the winder whereby on one side of the supporting arm an empty bobbin is provided which rotates with the same speed of rotation as the wind-up bobbin located in the winder. The bobbin-changing device is brought into position at the winder and is connected with the most filled bobbin in the winder such that driving of this bobbin is now carried out by way of the bobbin-changing device. The supporting arm is then rotated around 180.degree. whereby at the same time, the thread is cut and glued to the filled bobbin. As soon as the empty bobbin has taken the position of the full bobbin in the winder, the thread to be run in the winder is attached to the bobbin and the wind-up process continues.
Although this bobbin-changing device works very satisfactorily, there arises problems due to the constant increase in the speed of production. Upon release of a bobbin-change demand signal by a winder, the bobbin-changing device of the known type requires a certain time in order that the device can be brought in the appropriate position. Furthermore, a considerable time is required until the bobbin-changing device has moved the full bobbin to a corresponding magazine or storehouse and a new empty bobbin is picked-up in order that a further bobbin-change can be carried out. Therefore, the application of such a movable bobbin-changing device qualifies as being problematic when the times for filling the bobbins are reduced and as a result, the number of bobbin-changes to be carried out increases.